GrandLakes

Well, a lot of it has to do with the fact that all of the pieces of land you listed off are owned by other people and already have plans slated for them.

I pass this everyday going to work. In my opinion, it appears to be some sort of multi-tennant living facility. Apartments, townhomes, condos, senior apartments, something like that. It looks like a bunch of individual buildings being framed out and they all have a lot of plumbing.

For those of you wondering what is going in the Target parking lot across the street - if you look closer you will see that they are building a crosswalk across Gessner. They have vertical conrete supports on both sides of Gessner - some in front of the building labeled "Medical Plaza 4" and then some in the Target parking lot. Now, my theory has been that they want the hospital foot traffic to be able to get to the mall safely and easily. I didn't think that they might be buildng a parking garage by Target and that the cross walk would be for that.

Also, has anyone noticed that they have fenced off the parking lot of the old, original hospital? It is the building that actually faces I-10. That parking lot is totally fenced off - and if you look at some of the renderings, I believe they are putting a parking garage there.

As far as the hotel (or whatever), I work in one of the glass office buildngs right across from the mall on Barryknoll. My window looks out on this construction (it is very distracting). They have been doing soil samples / drilling for a while now. Hopefully that cool looking hotel will be going in!

I drove by this site yesterday - there is nothing going on there. It looks like the Palis Royal is close to opening and that they cleaned up the land next to it. They have sprayed grass seed there - making me think that nothing will be going in for a while.

I must agree with the above posts:

1. While we moved to Grand Lakes because of the close proximity to the Westpark Tollway, I am not going to sit in traffic every morning and pay to do so. I use I-10 for my commute to the I-10 / Gessner area.

2. While you do not have kids that will use the good / bad schools that you are zoned to, resale value is something to consider. You will cut out a lot of potential buyers if you are zoned to a bad school.

Well, I have been wondering when the development would start on this plot of land right behind the existing Wells Fargo. I thought Safeway / Randall's owned the land and I have noticed that they have started to stake it out. Here is the link to the sales sheet:

http://www.fidelisrealtypartners.com/prope...esFLIER_001.pdf

For those of you that live in the area - take a look at the traffic counts on the first page. Fry road West of Grand Parkway has less cars that East of Grand Parkway. Those numbers are from 2001 and appear to make the East side more appealing to a retail development. Those numbers are totally wrong - Grand Lakes and Seven Meadows were just getting started at that time and HEB and Home Depot were still fields of grass. Traffic counts on the west side are significantly higher than the East side today.

Any idea who will go in here? Is it going to be something like Bed Bath & Beyond, Linens n things, Babies R Us, etc? Like on Fry and I-10?

It would be awesome if a Best Buy went in here. At least there won't be retail development on the NE Corner - that way we won't have a traffic situation like there is with HEB and Home Depot now.

When considering overall square footage, this development has more than the HEB development.

Looking forward to it!

I agree...but I wouldn't put the idea past them! You never know...

We just built a house in Grand Lakes (about a year ago). The proximity to Westpark was very appealing. We built here because of the school district - we hope to have kids in a few years. Grand Mission is a nice neighborhood but the schools aren't as appealing as Katy ISD. If I were in your shoes, with no kids, I would absolutely consider Grand Mission. Take a look at the property tax rate for Katy ISD vs. the school district you would be in. I would venture to guess that Katy is much higher.

Crazy!! I just noticed that today when driving home from Home Depot (or should I say leaving my home...I practically live there...) anyways, - Is it going to be a gas-station type drive-through car wash or something else? Like a hand wash - you drop your car off at the front of the store, go shop, we wash your car while you shop, and then to pick it up there is some sort of valet system?

Interesting...

They put the sign up on the Palis Royal - I guess it will be open soon!

I agree - it is a lot of crap. That area is so crowded (traffic) now anyways - they really need to put a light up at the Home Depot / HEB Intersection. Has anyone heard any details of what will be going in across Grand Parkway on Fry? There is a Wells Fargo bank on that corner (SE Corner of GP and Fry road) and Fidelis has signs up. I have heard rumor that Randall's owns that land. It seems big enough for another store - does anyone know anything?

Holy Crap...that is "cheap" compared to last year! Awesome!

It is funny you posted this - I was at a wedding last night and an old friend of mine said the exact same thing about that specific HEB. She said the HEB on Mason was cheaper. Now I am going to have to do my normal shopping at both places and compare the prices.

DUDE!!! That link you posted - if you look at page 3 (the site plan) it has the Texas Roadhouse logo on it. It is a PDF file so I know you didn't put it there - so I think we have confirmation that it is indeed a Texas Roadhouse!!!

Awesome - what a great restaurant.

Sorry for posting that - it was late at night when I read your post CyKat. Your post did come across as a bit cocky, but then again it is all about the way the reader perceives the post - it doesn't always come across as intended by the original poster.

So - I apologize.

There is some sort of building being built in the parking lot of Gardens at Westgreen (NE Corner of Westgreen and I-10). It looks like a restaurant. Does anybody know what it is?

The entire purpose of this board is for people to find out information on Houston architecture (and surrounding areas). It is obvious that you, cykat, should find something better to do with your time. AS*.

Props to UH for doing so. Last night it was heading this way - do you know what happened to the UH campus when TS Allison hit? The entire campus was underwater. They have a lot of old buildings with underground floors and a tunnel system - all were underwater. The school was a disaster place.

There is no way to tell. Yes, we now know that the storm turned East and missed us. But, it just as easily could of turned West - putting Houston on the dirty East side of the storm. Allison did that and then parked itself and dumped 36" of rain in some spots.

It doesn't hurt anything to have some sort of a reaction.

Yeah I saw that too. When they say 2007-2008, does that mean the academic year or will they set a rate that stays the same for two actual calendar year ('07 and '08)?

I am fairly new to home ownership and I know that Katy ISD is responsible for the majority of the property taxes I will pay for 2007 (or is it 2008...I know I will get a bill in December). When is the rate announced? It was supposed to be $2.00 last year but it was something like $1.85.

Does anyone know?

That is too bad. I live in Grand Lakes and the Home Depot is WAY too close to go anywhere else. I really like Lowe's (much better than Home Depot) but the one at Fry and I-10 is too far of a drive from my house.

Interesting. I was 100% positive that Lowe's would be going in that spot. I wonder if they plan on building somewhere else? We need an auto parts store and a lowes down there.

I grew up in Williamsburg Settlement and my parents still live there (they moved in in '79). There was always talk of a mall going in between mason and grandparkway - it looks like it may finally be happening.

Does anyone have any more information or better pictures of this new Kickerello development? I am excited about all of the planned development for that area.

Well no wonder all of the dealerships are packing themselves in East of Mason on the South side of I-10. Makes sense. I wonder what will happen to the 'old' Archer dealership by Katy Mills Mall? It will have to be something that is more of a destination purchase like Land Rover, Jag, Infiniti, Lexus, etc. Maybe a combination.

Interesting.

Alright - this makes sense. A Honda dealership. Where is the closet one - somewhere around I-10 and Gessner on the North Side?

Yeah - there is a Nissian (sp?) dealership on the SouthEast corner of I-10 and Pin Oak right next to Katy Mills Mall. A little bit further East on the feeder road there used to a Jeep dealership (also in front of Katy Mills). It closed down a while back. What is amazing to me is that Jeep / Chrysler / dodge has built and closed so many dealerships over the last few years out towards katy along I-10. There were two dealerships built along the Katy Freeway just East of HWY 6. One was a jeep / chrysler and one was a dodge. I think the chrysler / jeep one closed and moved in with the Dodge dealership. The old Chrysler / jeep place sat empty for a while and now it is a Mercedes dealership. So the combined jeep / chrysler / dodge closed down a while later and that sat empty for a while. Then they opened a jeep / chrysler out in katy by Katy Mills - and it closed. Now they have re-opened the one I was just talking about as a jeep / chrysler. And they have a dodge place around Westgreen.

Crazy.

Alright - I looked at it again driving in today. It appears that there are garages for cars on both sides of the building. Also, there are a lot of big holes in the structure - probably for windows - making me think again that it is a car dealership that will have I-10 frontage. The building is set pretty far back off of the feeder road, making lots of room for concrete!